Running into a Blockbuster Video, smelling a room full of plastic cases and VHS tapes, it was a scramble for whichever newly released movies weren’t already rented out.
Then, the gentle reminder on the way out: Be kind, rewind.
“It was the polite thing to do,” Huntington Beach resident Jeff Hall recalled. “People that were completely self-absorbed wouldn’t rewind the video, and it messed it up for everyone else.”
These experiences are lost to the rise of the DVD and now streaming platforms, but Hall and his wife, Shelley, relived their rental years this week at the OC Fair.
The past few years, the fair’s featured exhibit had recalled the history of album cover art, but this year it’s presenting a cinematic blast from the past with REWIND: A VHS Revival.
Visitors can stroll through a recreated Blockbuster Video storefront and pose in cult classic scenes. Seeing the recreated storefront, Shelley Hall relived memories of rushing to snag the latest movies, her Blockbuster card in hand.
“The nostalgia is coming back to me,” she said. “We grew up with this.”
Housed in the blissfully air-conditioned Huntington Beach buildings through Aug. 17, the exhibit hosts an array of hand-painted movie art originally displayed in video stores from the ’80s through the early 2000s, and a collection of original movie posters.
Sitting in red-cushioned theater seats, fairgoers can watch artists paint iconic movie posters in real time.
One local artist, Angel Acordagoitia, was live-painting a recreation of “The Bride of Frankenstein” poster art for a small audience this week. He also painted a mural for this year’s exhibit that only appears under black light.
“Artists used to paint the posters for movies,” Acordagoitia said. “So the artist became part of the movie.”
The live painting happens daily from 3 to 9 p.m. — it can take a week to complete one poster.
The exhibit also features floor-to-ceiling movie art, displaying hand-painted canvases that were used as scene backdrops in films, such as “The Sound of Music” and “Logan’s Run.”
Jessica Volonte, who works at the exhibit, wants visitors to appreciate the work that went into making and marketing movies and to be immersed in movie culture.
“I want them to feel like they get swept back to those movies, like they’re absorbed into them,” Volonte said.
“I want them to think back to those moments and really get in touch with what movies are,” she added. “How all of these films build up a whole culture.”
Volonte recognized some of the VHS tapes in the storefront display — like “The Little Mermaid” — from her own youth watching movies and lamented the VHS charm she feels has been lost with streaming platforms.
Shelley and Jeff Hall said they also remember the charms of VHS tapes, and felt a wave of nostalgia at the exhibit, picking out blockbuster hits in the displays they grew up watching.
“If you grew up in the ’80s or the ’90s you’ll appreciate this,” Shelley Hall said. “It’s just a nice piece of history to share with the younger generations, to just appreciate it because you’re not gonna get these films today.”
REWIND: A VHS Revival runs the length of the 23-day OC Fair, closing at 10 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.